National Institute on Drug Abuse award will advance a smartphone-based treatment that helps pregnant individuals quit smoking.

 A new global study in PNAS shows that culture may shape how people respond to others' emotional distress. Across 17 countries, researchers found that people in more individualistic cultures are more motivated to make others feel better, and more likely to behave in ways that will make others feel better (for instance, expressing care). The findings reveal that trying to help others does not look the same everywhere, informing our understanding of culture, mental health care, and communication in increasingly diverse societies.

RNA interference is a natural mechanism for living cells to control whether specific genes are being used or not. Crowned with the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine, the discovery of RNA interference has since been harnessed by scientists to create a powerful and growing class of drugs capable of suppressing disease-related genes. Seven such drugs have already received FDA approval, including inclisiran, which can replace daily cholesterol-lowering pills with biannual injections. Despite these clinical successes, the molecular details of how the system executes its cuts remained poorly understood. Now, Scripps Research scientists have captured the first high-resolution structural images of the human RNA interference molecular machinery in its slicing-ready state.

In the U.S., Hispanic/Latino populations are disproportionately at risk for eye diseases like glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, or vision loss tied to diabetes. But the association between heart and eye health in Hispanic/Latino people remains under-researched, said Dr. Charlotte Joslin, UIC professor of ophthalmology. In a new study published in JAMA Network Open, Joslin examined vision and cardiovascular health data from more than 3,000 Hispanic/Latino adults. The results indicate an association between cardiovascular disease risk factors, like diabetes, and visual impairment.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the most urgent threats to global health, linked to an estimated 4.7 million deaths worldwide in 2019 alone. As more bacteria evolve to evade even last-resort drugs, the supply of effective treatments is shrinking. Now, scientists at Scripps Research have discovered a way to restore the effect of one of those critical antibiotics by disabling a key bacterial enzyme.